


New Allies

by RomanMoray



Category: Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018), Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: F/F, Gen, I did not edit this at all, Imperial Era, Long One-Shot, One-Shot, i just wanted them to hang out ok, i think canonically enfys is younger than ahsoka but i wrote them as being about the same age, it's a prison break!, they are clearly gay but there's not really any romance per se
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-21
Updated: 2020-09-21
Packaged: 2021-03-07 19:40:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,745
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26573098
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RomanMoray/pseuds/RomanMoray
Summary: Ahsoka is captured by Crimson Dawn, and makes a friend to pass the time.
Relationships: Enfys Nest & Ahsoka Tano, Enfys Nest/Ahsoka Tano
Comments: 3
Kudos: 18





	New Allies

**Author's Note:**

> I have no idea if anyone will read this, but here it is!

Ahsoka Tano, former Jedi Padawan, current rebel operative and master mechanic, leaned back in the weathered pilot's seat of her stolen shuttle and put her boot-clad feet up on the console. Her gaze flickered to the ship's chronometer—this new contact was late. Very, very late. She'd give it another hour, then go on her way.

Most of the time, gathering intelligence for the rebellion was not as exciting as it had sounded like it would be. When Ahsoka had taken the code name of Fulcrum, after lying low in the Mid and Outer Rim for so long, she'd expected to end up in as many shootouts and starship crashes as she had during the Clone Wars; in reality, she spent most of her time waiting in open space for contacts who may or may not decide to show up, let alone have any useful information to relay back to Senator Organa and the rest of their allies. Or casing Imperial factories from a very safe distance for weeks on end, living off rations that tasted like dust and breathing in recycled air that made her throat itch. She stayed true to her goal of searching for and protecting Force-sensitive children—but there were others who needed the rebellion's help now, and a lot went into providing assistance surreptitiously enough that the Empire didn't just tighten its grip.

She knew is was too soon for open conflict, and she understood the importance of keeping a low profile. But for better or worse, she'd lived a fast-paced life as a child soldier, and the eerily silent one she found herself in made her palms ache for her lightsabers and her heart long for the rush of wind blowing between her montrals. The closest she'd gotten to combat in the past six standard months was practicing her forms, which she did religiously.

 _Patience, Snips,_ the voice of her Master intoned in her mind. _Patience._ As if her Master had ever had two chits of patience to rub together. 

Ahsoka's eyes drifted from navicomputer's glowing green display to the viewport. The black expanse of space outside was silent and still.

The Force scratched at the edge of her awareness. Her boots returned to the stirrups of the pilot's chair and her hands settled on the controls just as five fighters dropped out of hyperspace in front of her.

_Oh, kriff._

Ahsoka fired the thrusters and the shuttle glided forward sluggishly—this ship was no Jedi starfighter. The five ships in front of her fanned out, blocking her escape. They weren't Imperial TIEs—they were A-wings, painted glossy black, unmarked. Some sort of gang or syndicate probably—someone with enough money to buy Ahsoka's location from her informant.

But it didn't really matter who they were. Ahsoka was getting out of there. She began the hyperspace calculations, hoping the navicomputer would be done by the time she managed to find an opening.

The middle ship launched a warning shot into space above her. The red blaze of the laser lit up the cockpit. Ahsoka yanked the ship down into a dive and winced when the durasteel shuddered in protest.

"Come on, _come on_ —I promise I'll take you right back to your little backwater spaceport if we can just _get out of here_ —"

More laser cannons fired, and she spun the ship to make herself harder to hit. It was disorienting, maneuvering like this without a planet around as a reference point. She swerved. The ship was nearly done calculating the jump, she only needed a second—

A laser made contact with one of the shuttle's thrusters, and the ship lurched violently. The console readouts turned red and a high-pitched, arrhythmic alarm began to blare.

"Kriff, kriff, kriff, kriff..." She muttered under her breath, flipping switches and turning knobs. Redirect power, manual override on auxiliary functions...

But it was too late. A second laser connected with the aft stabilizers, and the shuttle was adrift in space, defenseless.

Ahsoka slumped in her seat, face set in a grimace. She should really be more careful what she wished for.

\-----

Enfys Nest allowed herself to be marched by the black and gold clad guards through the long, dark halls of the prison. The bright ray shields cast red light through the steel bars of the cells, creating long bloody stripes across the dirt floor. She expected she'd be able to see a bit better without her battle helmet, but she'd rather launch herself into space than take it off—its weight was reassuring, and Enfys was sure it would be taken from her if her captors realized she didn't need it to live.

Her blood was boiling and her fists were clenched, still coming down from the adrenaline high of the skirmish between her Cloud-Riders and the Crimson Dawn enforcers who'd taken her captive. She'd acted as a diversion when she'd realized how gravely outnumbered they were, and the enforcers had taken the bait.

Enfys would be imprisoned, likely tortured and killed for menacing Crimson Dawn with her merry band of pirates for so long, but at least her people were safe. It was what her mother would have done.

They stopped in front of one of the last cells. Neither guard moved to unlock it, but the steel bars slid into the ground and the ray shield deactivated. There must be a control room somewhere else in the prison, she figured, filing that away in case it became relevant.

"Get in, marauder scum," one guard growled, kicking her in the back of the leg. She whirled on the spot instinctively and, since she was handcuffed, slammed the crown of her helmet into the enforcer's chin. His own less durable mask dented with the impact and he stumbled back, cursing. Enfys didn't get a chance to appreciate his pain, however, before an electrostaff was plunged into her gut by another guard and she was pushed back into the cell. She gasped though the reverberations of the electric current through her body, white-hot, barely registering the cell lock up as the guards departed.

Enfys recovered gradually and looked around her cell. It was small, only about seven by five feet. A ratty blanket was bundled in the middle of the floor, and there was a grime-covered metal contraption tucked in a corner that was probably supposed to be a toilet. The only sounds were the hum of the shield generators and steady a steady, monotonous dripping—the walls and ceiling were solid hewn rock, rough and slick with groundwater. On the left wall, at eye level, there was a hole in the rock that opened into the next cell over. Enfys thought she could probably wiggle through it if she needed to, but she wasn't sure how that would help her.

She strode over to the gash in the rock and glanced though, then did a double-take. The next cell was occupied by a Togruta woman, perhaps only a few years older than Enfys herself, with deep orange skin and white markings. But it wasn't her physical appearance that puzzled Enfys; it was her demeanor. She sat in the center of her cell, straight-backed, with her legs folded underneath her. Her eyes were closed and she appeared completely tranquil. If Enfys didn't know that they were in a Crimson Dawn prison camp in the middle of karking nowhere, she'd think the woman was sitting somewhere peaceful, like a wide open sunlit field or a mountain's solitary peak.

Enfys wrenched her gaze away from the oddly hypnotic figure and moved to nudge the suspicious blanket on the cell floor with her foot. Several large beetles scuttled out of it. She sighed, which produced a strange whistling noise when it passed through her mask's vocodor.

"I'd avoid using that, if I were you," a voice drifted from the adjacent cell. When Enfys looked back through the whole in the wall, the Togruta didn't seem to have moved, and her eyes remained closed. As though sensing Enfys' attention, she continued. "I'm not sure what my previous neighbor had, but I'm pretty sure you don't wanna catch it."

Enfys nodded minutely, then remembered the woman wasn't looking at her. Though she had known Enfys was inspecting the blanket without looking, hadn't she? Not that there were that many things to inspect in this place.

"I see."

She pushed the blanket to the side, then sat down with her back against the rock It poked unpleasantly into her unpleasantly. She shifted until she found a lump that would support her head, drew her thick cloak around her, then drifted off into a restless slumber.

\-----

_Enfys Nest was five, watching her mother fasten her shiny beskar gauntlets onto her wrists in their quarters aboard the_ Aerie. _Her battle helmet was already in place—to Enfys, the mask's scavenged spires and thin visor were as familiar as her mother's own features, if not more so._

_"Do you have to go?"_

_"Yes, little one. There are people who need me—who need us." Enfys nodded solemnly. It was always sad to see her go, but she was proud of her mother. She had just been hoping for another bedtime story..._

_...Enfys Nest was twelve, and she'd taken one of the swoop bikes out for a spin on some stormy moon in the dead of night. Without her mother around to tell her to slow down and stick with the pack, she raced the raindrops to the ground in vertical dives, punching straight through hazy blue-gray clouds. The wind howled in her ears and the rain streaked her goggles and soaked her thick hair. She wove in and out of craggy canyons, dark and indistinct, grazing as close to the boulders as she dared..._

_....Enfys Nest was fourteen, and her mother was training her to fight with a staff. When Enfys swept the legs out from under one of her most experienced fighters and he fell hard to the ground, she could feel her mother glow with pride even though she couldn't see her face..._

_...Enfys Nest was sixteen, and she was holding her mother in her arms as struggled to breathe. Her attackers were dead in the dirt several feet away, but there was a vibroblade buried deep in her chest and a bloody gash from her shoulder to her hip and Enfys has watched people die from less. She eased the battle helmet off her mother's head. Her dark brown eyes were leaking slightly, but there was no fear to be found there. Enfys couldn't say the same for herself. She wiped her own tears from her mother's dark brown cheeks as they fell._

_"I'm sorry, I'm sorry—don't—I can't do it alone—" If she'd just been faster, if she'd just fought harder..._

_Her mother took her hand, her grip surprisingly strong for a dying woman._

_"You can, little one," she croaked, then pushed the helmet into her daughter's heart. "You will."_

\-----

Ahsoka was awakened in the early morning—at least, what she assumed was the early morning—by an aborted cry of distress, distorted by a vocoder. She listened for more sounds from her neighbor, but none came.

Ahsoka didn't know any of the Cloud-Riders personally, but she did know of them. She'd seen blurry holos of their masked leader in action, seen evidence of their exploits in disrupted Imperial trade routes and mysteriously absent caches of fuel in the Outer Rim. She also knew that Senator Organa had been putting off negotiating with them because the pirates' methods could be extreme and unpredictable.

_"Would 'extreme' really be the worst thing right now, Bail?" Ahsoka had asked the miniaturized, static-ridden blue figure of the senator, once. They didn't call each other directly much, in case the signal was ever interrupted, but as two of the most central (if invisible) figures of the rebellion, they had to talk sometimes. At her words, he'd rubbed his forehead and sighed heavily._

_"As far as rebel cells go, they're only a few steps behind Saw Gerrera's Partisans."_

_"Saw Gerrera is one of our allies, though," Ahsoka had countered._

_"Sometimes, it's hard to tell if Gerrera's on any side at all."_

Ahsoka didn't always agree with Saw's methods—it was all a little, well, indelicate would be putting it lightly—but she didn't think they should be discounting their allies so quickly when finding new ones was such an arduous task. If they were ever going to get close to defeating the Empire, they couldn't afford infighting.

Perhaps the Cloud-Riders felt the same. Ahsoka had to admit, she admired their leader's spirit—if she'd been wearing a helmet like that, she'd've headbutted one of those damn Crimson Dawn lackeys too. The person behind the mask had a strong, bright energy in the Force—Ahsoka, who'd been meditating at the time, had sensed it as soon as they'd entered the prison complex, like smelling the smoke when you were downwind from a distant forest fire. There was searing anger there, but also compassion, warmth, vitality. A desire to avenge and defend, a mirror of her own.

It seemed that the Cloud-Rider had some ghosts in their past. Ahsoka could relate. She reached out and felt the flicker of consciousness from the cell.

"Can't sleep?" She intoned softly, hoping she wouldn't startle them. No response. She shifted a little closer to the rock wall dividing them.

"I don't sleep well either. Anywhere, not just here. Though I suppose the aura of despair can't be helping." There was a slight buzzing that could have been an exhale of laughter, or possibly derision. Hard to say through the modulation of the helmet.

"I'm Soka," she pressed on, figuring two-thirds of her name was better than nothing. She wasn't sure if the name Ahsoka Tano was even on the Empire's radar anymore, but it never hurt to be safe. "What's your name? And your pronouns?"

There was a beat of silence where Ahsoka didn't think she was going to get a response. 

"Enfys. She/her." Ahsoka smiled to herself.

"Me too." She paused. "Your name is a type of tree on Felucia. Did you know that?"

"I did not."

"Well, then, you learn something new every day. Even in prison." This time, it was definitely a huff of laughter that sounded from the other side of the rocks. Success.

"You should try to sleep, though. They don't let you rest during the day." Ahsoka let the silence settle once again, more comfortable than it had been before. She could feel Enfys' mind gradually relax from its taut state.

"Thanks." The word was so quiet that Ahsoka almost thought she'd imagined it.

"Any time."

\-----

At what Enfys could only assume was an ungodly early hour of the morning in the prison's day-cycle, and alarm sounded, shrill and deafening. The guards walked up and down the hall, gathering up the prisoners, practically dragging the slow ones out of their cells. Enfys made a point of standing close to the door, at the ready. When the guards opened Soka's cell, she noted with interest that they made no move to approach her—in fact, they seemed a little apprehensive, and gave her a wide birth as she walked calmly out of her cell, stretching a toned arm across her body and yawning widely, displaying a row of sharp canines.

"Good morning."

"Good morning," Enfys echoed automatically.

"Shut up!" One of the guards bellowed. Soka rolled her eyes dramatically and fell into step behind Enfys as they were marched down the hall, single file.

Enfys paid diligent attention to the route they took up from the underground prison an into the levels above. One large lift, straight, right, two flights of stairs, right, straight, left...

They finally left the building and entered a large, featureless outdoor courtyard—so large that Enfys had to squint to see the far side of the building in the distance. She wondered if there might be a way out that way—perhaps there was a channel that led outside the prison complex, even if this area itself was enclosed. The prisoners were given shovels and instructed to start digging into the reddish dirt in a certain area, encircled by the guards. It was oppressively hot, and the fine mist that hung in the air made everything sticky. Within an hour, she was sweating profusely, even though the labor itself wasn't too strenuous—for her, anyway.

Some of her comrades weren't so fortunate. An older Rodian's digging rate began to slow around mid-morning, and Enfys forced herself to continue her work when a guard stepped forward with an electro-whip to "encourage" him to dig faster.

If she ever got out of here, there'd be hell to pay.

She looked up at Soka a few times throughout the day. The Togruta didn't seem physically taxed by her labor at all. She was completely focused, her face an inscrutable, flat mask—it revealed none of the kindness that she'd extended to Enfys the night before, when she'd woken up from the nightmares of the past.

There was something implacably compelling about her, beyond her enigmatic attitude and endless energy. Enfys trusted her instincts, and her instincts told her that this woman was significant.

The day passed slowly, but it did pass—as the massive, too-close sun began to sink in the indigo sky, the prisoners were rounded up and escorted back inside. This time, she was behind Soka in the procession. Ahead of them both was the injured Rodian, who was limping heavily. Enfys watched as Soka quickened her pace and placed a hand surreptitiously on the Rodian's shoulder. Enfys heard her whisper something she didn't understand, presumably in Rodese. He glanced over his shoulder to her and nodded solemnly, his large, glossy black eyes dulled with pain and fatigue.

Soka dipped her head slightly, as though concentrating, then released the Rodian's shoulder. He continued on a few steps, then glanced back at Soka curiously. Enfys kept an eye on him as they walked. Sure enough, his limp had lessened slightly, and he no longer stuggled to keep in step with the group.

"What did you do to him?" Enfys whispered through the hole in her cell wall later that evening. She didn't look through, trying not to draw attention to the fact that they were communicating. She couldn't see any guards or even any cameras, but that didn't mean they weren't there.

"What did I do to whom?" _So that's how it's gonna be._

"The Rodian."

"I...just an old trick I picked up somewhere."

"That's some trick." The guards had provided them with some stale-looking rations that tasted like dead leaves, and Enfys had tilted her helmet back just enough to take a bite. If Soka noticed the change in her voice, she didn't mention it.

"I don't suppose you and your tricks have any thoughts on how to get out of here?" Enfys ventured.

"You want in? Not enjoying Crimson Dawn's hospitality?" Soka responded, her voice graced by a hint of playfulness. Enfys could imagine her dark mauve lips quirking into a lopsided grin.

"What do _you_ think?"

\-----

Ahsoka did, in fact, have a plan. Sort of. It was more like she had a collection of gathered facts and data points from her stay in the prison that, if she got out of the cell, she could probably extrapolate into something resembling a strategy. She'd certainly worked off less before.

She knew, roughly, where they were in the galaxy as a whole. She had memorized the paths she'd walked within the prison complex. She could sense around fifty distinct Force signatures on the planetoid, twelve of which were their fellow prisoners. Manageable odds, for her, as long as she didn't have to deal with all thirty-eight guards at the same time.

There were two problems she had yet to determine a solution for. The bars and ray shields of the cell doors were controlled from somewhere else in the complex. She thought she could figure out were the control center might be, but that wouldn't matter if they couldn't get out of the cells, and whenever they were moved there were too many guards and bystanders around to take advantage of the situation.

The second was that she'd have to get someone to pick her up, since the transport she came in on seemed to be the only ship coming and going from the planet. It had left as soon as she'd been offloaded, presumably to stop would-be escapees such as herself from stealing it. The trick would be getting her friends here before Crimson Dawn reinforcements arrived.

But now that Ahsoka had an ally, the whole ordeal seemed a little less intimidating. She just had to wait for the right opportunity.

And so, she waited—and watched.

She waded through the endless cycle of the routine of prison life. She dutifully dug into the planet's hard earth, ate her disgusting rations, and meditated.

During the night cycle, she often found herself chatting with Enfys. There was something about the Cloud-Rider that drew Ahsoka in—the awareness of a kindred spirit, perhaps, or simply the mystery provided her reticent nature and the impressive mask she wore. Ahsoka found herself repeating the Aurebesh script on top of the battle helmet in her own head, though she only ever caught glimpses of the inscription.

_Until we reach the last edge, the last opening, the last star, and can go no higher._

It was a poem Ahsoka had known before; or rather, had heard once, probably from Master Kenobi, who had always been the expert on such things. Ahsoka hadn't thought much about the poem before, as a flighty, feisty Padawan. But now it sat in the corner of her mind, along with the comforting Force-signature of her new friend.

"I don't know why that particular poem was chosen," Enfys had intoned when Ahsoka had asked about it. "It's been passed down, mother to daughter—leader to leader—for more generations than any of us know. The helmet changes, is modified by every wearer—but the inscription remains the same. Or so I've been told."

"It's beautiful."

The silence hung in the air. Their conversations were often somewhat stilted, as though both of them were rigorously measuring their words before they spoke. There was a rustle of armor and fabric as Enfys shifted, and Ahsoka sensed her leaning closer to the gap in the wall, though all she could see was two of her helmet's spires.

"I worry that I'm not...worthy, of it. Sometimes. It symbolizes so much of my people's history, it is hard not to feel small in comparison."

Ahsoka nodded to herself. She had once been similarly conflicted about her lightsabers, even though they'd never been owned by anyone else. Everything about their weapons was sacred to the Jedi, and even if she wasn't one, she still felt that reverence.

"Legacy is a powerful thing. It can be intimidating, and yet also a reminder. Life will go on."

"We hope."

"Balance will prevail," she paused, looking down at her hands folded in her lap. "It is the way of the Force." There was an indecipherable noise from Enfys' vocoder that may have been a sniff.

"A nonbeliever?"

"No, it's just...I'm not sure the Force likes me very much." Ahsoka wanted to say that wasn't true, that the Force sang around her like songbirds at dawn, but she refrained.

"The Force doesn't play favorites," Ahsoka asserted instead, though she wasn't sure if that was entirely what she believed.

"You seem to know a lot about it."

"Oh," Ahsoka waved a hand noncommittally, fighting down a smile before remembering that Enfys wasn't looking at her. "You know."

"I really don't."

\-----

Several rotations later, they came for Enfys. She had known that Crimson Dawn would interrogate her eventually, that he time here in relative peace was borrowed, and so when four large, shiny-helmeted guards came to the cell door she stood proudly, her stance neutral, as though she'd been waiting for them.

The bars retracted into the floor and ceiling, the ray shield's charge ended, and two of the guards stepped forward with wrist binders.

"Come along, pirate _sleemo._ " Enfys strode forward slowly, deliberately, and stood as steadily as possible when the guard yanked her hands roughly forward. He set them to bind her so tightly that within a moment, she began to lose feeling in her fingers.

"I, for one, can't wait to see what the boss has in store for _you._ "

"Me neither," she replied dryly, before she could stop herself. The guard kicked her shin with his boot, and Enfys gritted her teeth and willed her leg not to buckle.

"Hey, boys, could I come talk with the boss too?"

Pain forgotten, Enfys' head snapped around to Soka's cell to so fast it made her dizzy. Although maybe that was just the malnutrition starting to affect her.

Soka was leaning benignly against the far wall of her cell, looking out at them. Enfys made the Cloud-Rider hand signal for _stop whatever you're doing,_ but Soka didn't look at her.

"No one karking spoke to you, did they?"

"Well, I just figured, since you're here..." She shrugged and inspected her nails. Enfys groaned, quietly enough that her vocoder didn't pick it up. She was going to get herself pulverized.

"Open cell 13," one of the guards growled into his comm. As soon as it opened, two of them stomped inside and... Soka was gone. Or she was, for a moment, before she turned up again right behind the two men holding Enfys. She moved fast, almost faster than Enfys could process. She leapt, twirling in the air, kicking one guard in the sternum, using the momentum to propel herself into the second.

The two standing in the doorway to Soka's cell raised their blasters and fired, but somehow they missed, despite how close they were to their target. Soka sprung forward like a wild tooka, disarming them and knocking them out in an instant. Enfys stared. The Togruta's vivid blue eyes were sharp with focus, but there was a ghost of a smile on her lips.

Suddenly, Enfys was being being hurried down the hall, and the rational part of her brain started to catch up with what was happening.

"Hey! What the _kriff!?_ "

"You said you wanted in!" Enfys noted, with bemusement, the abject glee in Soka's voice as they sprinted. Enfys wasn't sure where they were going, though Soka seemed to—somehow.

"I thought you might give me some warning, or maybe tell me what the _karking_ plan was first!"

"Well, that was step one. Step two is..." Soka skidded to a halt and seized Enfys' bound wrists. She flexed her fingers over them slightly and they released with a click.

"Another one of those tricks?"

Enfys didn't know much about Jedi, but pretty much _everything_ about Soka aligned with the little bits of fact and rumor she'd picked up. She felt a little thrill of fascination—her mother had told her stories about Force-wielders—some Jedi, some not—but Enfys had never truly considered that those were _real people_ until she was running through a Crimson Dawn prison with a woman who could move faster than anyone she'd ever met and make things move with her mind.

They dashed up two flights of stairs and bolted though a blast door, right into a group of armed guards heading their way.

"You with me?"

"I'm with you."

Enfys might not be a Jedi, but she'd been trained to fight since birth, and had inherited the rest from her mother. They fell into an unspoken rhythm as they fought side by side—Soka flicked blaster bolts away from them with little movements of her fingers and knocked away their weapons, and Enfys took them down.

"We make a good team," Soka grinned, decking a guard without even looking at him.

"I'll withhold judgment until we're safely out of here," she replied, although in truth she agreed wholeheartedly. When Soka's grin widened, Enfys wondered if the rumors about Jedi being able to read minds were true.

"Which way?"

"They came from that way, so we're going that way."

"Why do we want to go where there will be more of them?"

"They have some things of mine. I want them back. Also, we need to call for help, and a control center will have a radio."

Enfys sighed and cracked her knuckles, thinking of her electroripper staff. Soka was right.

"Let's go, then."'

As they weaved through the dark, rocky corridors, Enfys began notice a suspicious lack of resistance. There were a ton of guards stationed in the prison, she'd seen them—so where were they?

"There should be more of them!"

"I know—we'll cross that bridge when we get to it!"

Whenever they reached a place where the corridors split, or there was a staircase, Soka would stop for a moment, brow furrowed in concentration, stretching out the arching white markings over her eyes. Enfys could only guess at what she was doing to navigate them, but she hoped it worked, whatever it was.

At last, they reached a large set of blast doors. There were two guards posted on either side, and Soka took them out without hardly breaking stride.

"We're here."

\-----

Ahsoka could feel the pull of her lightsabers grow stronger as they hurried though the prison. Her hands itched for the curved metal hilts and the familiar, steady hum of energy coursing through her.

The sparse control center was minimally staffed. The room was circular and lined with ancient, sputtering monitors and grimy consoles. Enfys felled the first crewman with such a solid round kick that Ahsoka swore she could hear a rib crack, and another fell victim to a vicious headbutt.

As a large Trandoshan made to charge at her, Ahsoka reached out with the Force. As if they'd been waiting for her, her lightsabers zipped from where they'd been stashed on the far side of the room. The blades ignited in a blaze of pure white light as soon as she caught them; she spun on the spot, and the resulting fan of deadly energy cut down her opponent instantly.

Ahsoka deactivated the sabers once her opponent had fallen. The roomed seemed much darker than it had before they'd illuminated the room. She glanced over at Enfys, who's helmeted face was angled toward her in interest. Suddenly self-conscious, she briskly moved over to the communications console

"They _really_ need some equipment upgrades," Ahsoka mused as she plucked at its chunky buttons and turned the dials, trying coax it in to transmitting a signal.

"As powerful as the syndicate is, we know the Empire has depleted some of their resources."

"I don't know if I should be pleased Crimson Dawn is in a tight spot, or concerned that the Empire is the one causing it."

"Both. Who are you trying to call?"

Ahsoka stopped. She had an emergency frequency that she could use to contact Senator Organa, but she'd be risking his safety to do so. She wasn't sure why this hadn't occurred to her earlier.

"You know, I'm not actually sure?"

"Let me." Enfys shouldered Ahsoka out of the way to access the radio. After a moment, they were broadcasting.

"This is Nest to the _Aerie_. Do you read me?"

_"Enfys? Is that you? We've been looking for you—I'm assuming you need a pickup, sir?"_

"Faddera! Yes, as soon as possible. I'm transmitting coordinates now—be careful, I don't know how much resistance there will be."

_"Yes, sir. We'll be ready."_

"Thank you, Faddera."

The signal went dead, and Ahsoka slowly released a sigh of relief. Thanks to Enfys' gang, they'd be out of here soon.

Now armed with Ahsoka's lightsabers and Enfys' impressive staff, they made their way back through the Crimson Dawn prison to the landing platform. Ahsoka's gnawing dread increased as they drew closer. The Force was pulling her both forwards and backwards in space—there was a deadly foe ahead, but one whom she needed to face. She hadn't felt this since Raada, since she'd faced the Sixth Brother—and before that, on Mandalore. It was the sickly, throbbing energy of the dark side.

It all made sense when the front blast doors fanned opened to reveal the windswept landing platform, devoid of ships except for one red and black starfighter. It was swarmed by Crimson Dawn operatives, but Ahsoka's eyes were drawn to a horrifically familiar figure standing in the center of the platform, his black-robed arms folded neatly in front of him, his yellow eyes glinting in the sun's reddish light.

"Ahsoka Tano," Maul intoned. He didn't shout, but his eerie voice traveled easily across the distance between them.

Ahsoka wasn't afraid of Maul. Fear was tool of the dark side, and she was above it. But that didn't mean she was especially happy to see him, either—their odds had just gotten astronomically worse.

"You know this guy?" Enfys whispered from her left.

"Yes. And you do too—or rather, I'm sure you're familiar with some of his work."

"What's the plan?"

"I'm open to suggestions." Ahsoka slid into her trademark Jar'Kai opening stance as Maul prowled towards them. His entourage didn't move, just stood there with their weapons trained on the two escapees. 

"I'd wondered when I'd be seeing you again. It seems the Force is not yet done with either of us."

"Maybe not," Ahsoka growled. "But I'm pretty done with you." The mask of composure she'd kept since she'd been captured was beginning to slip in the face of her old enemy. Her grip tightened on her lightsabers, and she rolled her right wrist, causing the blade to spin threateningly. Beside her, Enfys leveled her staff at Maul, its energy ribbon crackling.

"Now, now—we need not have bloodshed. You and I are one in the same, Lady Tano—outcasts in this galaxy. I once offered you a place at my side, as my apprentice. That offer stills."

"Yeah, I don't think so."

Maul heaved a sigh. "A shame. Though I expected as much—you never did know what was best for you."

He lunged, and Ahsoka was more than ready for the red blade arcing towards her. They fought, their sabers a deadly flurry of red and white. The guards closed in around them, and even as Ahsoka effortlessly parried and traded blows with the former Sith Lord, she knew it was futile—if she struck him down, they'd be killed instantly.

She just had to draw this out as long as possible, and hope that Enfys' friends got there soon.

Ahsoka danced between his strikes. She slipped under his guard and nicked the fabric of his robe, which sizzled and smoked. Maul bared his teeth in frustration and front kicked her in the stomach, and she slid backwards, rolling with the impact. She recovered quickly, launching her own offensive.

Maul's blade came down hard above her, using his height to his advantage. Ahsoka just barely blocked the blow, her own blades holding him back in a glowing white cross. She pushed, but Maul was bigger, more muscular—and then, suddenly, the Zabrak's body seized up and went limp. He fell to the ground in a graceless heap.

Maul was replaced by Enfys, who still had her electroripper staff buried in his shoulder.

"You looked like you could use some help."

"Thanks," Ahsoka replied, a little breathlessly. "Is he dead?"

"Nah, probably just stunned. They only die sometimes when I electrocute them."

"I'm betting this isn't one of those rare occasions." Ahsoka grimaced, thinking of the many, many times the galaxy had thought Maul dead only to be proven decidedly wrong.

But they had other concerns at the moment.

Ahsoka heard the clicks of blasters being set to kill, and a great shuffling as the operatives closed in. She held her sabers defensively, ready to deflect as much as she could.

At that moment, the shadow of a carrier fell over them. The _Aerie._ With a roar of engines, the landing platform was swarmed by Cloud-Riders, their swoop bikes careening around the corners of the building behind them.

It was over in under two minutes. Ahsoka couldn't help but admire the pirates' style. She wondered how much trouble it would be to get herself a tricked-out swoop bike, as one equipped with what looked like a ships' rocket launcher whizzed by her.

One of them dismounted by her and Enfys. They wore a bulky helmet, with a wide rectangular faceplate, and heavy robes that reminded Ahsoka of a Tusken Raider's garb.

"Sir! Are you alright? Who's this?"

"This is..." Ahsoka could practically hear her deciding what to call Ahsoka, now that she knew her real name. "This is my friend Soka. She helped me escape."

Ahsoka bowed slightly. "It's nice to meet you."

"And you. Thank you." She nodded.

"There are others here—other prisoners. Send some people to fetch them."

"What will you do with them?" Ahsoka asked as the Cloud-Rider left to follow their leader's orders.

"We'll take them home, if they have a home to return to. Or, they will be welcomed to stay with us aboard the _Aerie._ "

When they were safely aboard the carrier, Ahsoka turned to ask Enfys if it was possible for her to stay on the ship until she could meet up with the rest of her side of the rebellion, but found an unfamiliar young woman standing where her masked friend had just been. She had a pretty, heavily-freckled face, with a large amount of bushy, reddish-brown hair. Her eyes were large and dark. She was younger than Ahsoka had expected—a few years younger than Ahsoka herself, if she had to guess.

Enfys tucked her battle helmet under her arm and ran her fingers through her hair, which was a little messy from being stashed in the helmet for several consecutive days.

"It gets heavy after a while," she said somberly. Her voice was so different, so much softer without the modulation of the vocoder. Ahsoka shook herself out of her daze.

"I'm sure it does."

\-----

Ahsoka spent a few days aboard the Cloud-Rider's mobile base before Bail got in touch with her. It was a lively place—the only ship carriers Ahsoka had ever been on were military, so it was exciting to see one so heavily decorated. It was a ship, yes—but more than anything it was a home. Children ran through the hallways, there was laughter and chatter on the bridge, and music played over the comm system during the day.

Ahsoka accepted Bail's holo in the quarters set aside for her. His blue hologram flickered to life. He spoke quietly, and Ahsoka figured he must be on Coruscant, where he had to be more careful about potential eavesdroppers.

"Fulcrum. It's good to see you. I heard your last meeting didn't go so well." The senator's expression was serious, but his tone was light. He was relieved to see her.

"More like, it didn't go at all. It was a set up."

"I've already written off that contact. I'm sorry our vetting process failed."

"That's alright," Ahsoka soothed. She knew Bail was doing his best. Stuff was bound to slip through the cracks every now and then.

"Meet me at meeting location A-54 for your next assignment."

"See you soon."

Enfys walked her to the Aerie's hanger a few hours later, having graciously offered Ahsoka Maul's starfighter that they'd taken from the prison's landing platform. Ahsoka stood awkwardly in front of the ship. She'd never been especially good at goodbyes, particularly with her friends, and she considered the Cloud-Rider among those. Enfys' helmet observed her impassively as she fidgeted.

"Um."

"You and the rebellion will always have allies in the Cloud-Riders." Enfys said finally, seeming to take pity on her. Ahsoka bowed her head, her lekku falling forward.

"Thank you," she said earnestly. Enfys nodded and started to turn away, back out of the ship's hanger. "And Enfys?"

The large battle helmet angled back towards her slightly, attentive.

"May the Force be with you."

"Good luck, Ahsoka."

Ahsoka smiled to herself and climbed into the cockpit of the fighter. It was a big galaxy, but she was sure their paths would cross again.


End file.
